About the project

This site draws on ethnographic research that Professor Anne Pollock began in 2010 at iThemba Pharmaceuticals (pronounced ee-TEM-ba), a small start-up pharmaceutical company in the outskirts of Johannesburg that was founded in 2009 with the mission of drug discovery for TB, HIV, and malaria. The synthetic chemistry research that scientists do at iThemba is no different than what might be done in a well-equipped lab anywhere in the world. Yet, place matters. This interactive map is an opportunity to explore how.

Mapping iThemba has been made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation program for Science, Technology, and Society (Award #1331049). Professor Anne Pollock did the research and wrote the text for this site, new media artist Katherine Behar conceived the interactive map, and Digital Media master's student Russell Huffman designed, illustrated, and implemented it.